


This could all be yours

by Chay



Category: Arctic Monkeys, British Singers RPF, Indie Music RPF
Genre: F/M, Heavy Drinking, Not Beta Read, not anything actually, slightly angst-y?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 02:38:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4689308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chay/pseuds/Chay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You never know which turn you take is going to lead you to an unhappy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The beginning...

**Author's Note:**

> This being my first story here, in fact a first ever in this fandom, I'm really sorry for any moral damage it could cause. I hope it doesn't completely suck. In other news, English isn't my first language and unfortunately the story wasn't beta read, so feel free (and even encouraged) to throw rotten tomatoes at me.

_This party is a mess_ , Miles thought as he headed in the direction of a balcony to have a smoke. The tunes that kept playing were plain bad. You could smell the vapors of alcohol that was seeping through pores of everyone’s skin and several people have already passed out in weird places and contorted positions.  He himself hasn’t drunk much having in mind that tomorrow morning he and Alex were supposed to start recording and he didn’t want to waste the time in studio dying of hangover. Alex, however, seemed to have a completely different plan. The Scouser would be actually impressed with the amount and variety of alcoholic beverages that the small man was able to consume without throwing up all over his own expensive shoes or losing his consciousness but it was a stunt he seemed to pull way too often lately and it sort of lost the thrill of novelty. Right now, he was the king of an impromptu dancefloor on the top of a small coffee table and his usual dancing style got even more exotic as his limbs seemed to autonomously move like they were possessed by a demon with no sense of rhythm.  Anyway, he and the small crowd gathered around him, mostly birds, seemed to have lots of that kind of fun you can only get when you’re shitfaced and Miles desperately needed a cigarette break before his best friend’s inebriation finally reached its tipping point and knocked him out.

He stepped outside and inhaled chilly September air with a sigh of pleasure. He would swear that there was a secret ingredient, something specifically London about it and he loved it. He didn’t get to enjoy the moment of solitude for long though; there was a black clad silhouette leaning over the metal balustrade, clearly sharing his preference for smoke with a nice view over the brightly lit city.  It took a while for his pupils to adjust to the darkness around and when they did, he recognized the mane of chestnut hair flowing down the woman’s back, her shoulders slightly shaking as she apparently was silently sobbing.

-          Laura? – She turned around startled by his sudden presence, trying to wipe her tear-stained cheeks dry with the sleeve of her hoodie, effort proven to be futile as it only added smeared mascara to the repertoire of misery presented on her face.

-          Oh… hi, Miles – She answered quickly, her voice hoarse and he could say she was trying to play tough.

-          Why are you here alone? And why are you crying?

With any amount of alcohol in his system questions always slipped off his tongue before he had given them a chance to get processed by his frontal lobe. It was perfectly logical for Alex’s girlfriend to do what she was doing. As troubles begun he was rather hesitant, blaming a relatively long break Monkeys took for Alex’s appetite for stimulants fueled excitement with a hint of self-destructive tendencies. Now he had to admit he was really worried by the state of things his friend presented: his life was turning into a roller coaster car with faulty brakes that could derail and crash into solid ground any moment.

-          I got home from work and I found his note saying he’s gonna be here. I wanted to take him home but he told me to fuck off. - She smiled bitterly as she rubbed her forehead like she was trying to wipe all the thought behind it away. – Becoming more and more of a charmer, eh?

-          I was trying to steer him away from the bar but he was already buzzed when he arrived here, love. Wouldn’t take any suggestions anyway, he always knows better, you know…

Laura just sighed in response. She may have been furious when she found out that not only had Alex again broken his promise to stay home with her tonight, he also decided to give his social courage a boost with a few drinks at home before taking his car to get here. Now the anger was gone, replaced with sadness and resignation, the burden in her chest growing even heavier when she kept replaying the scene from inside the apartment in her head: how cold his eyes were, no trace of the warm chocolate she once fell in love with, the sudden realization that whatever she wanted to say was useless because he wasn’t planning on leaving the party just now and how unfriendly and humiliating his words sounded, like he wanted to make clear that she didn’t deserve to be a part of his plan for this evening whatsoever.   – I can’t… - She broke the silence, her voice cracking.  – I don’t know how many times more I can handle this, Mi. – Her green eyes turned from the horizon to him and seeing her face so pained was breaking his heart. He know exactly how much she cared for the bastard and the more she showed him her affection, the more Alex seemed to enjoy scorning her. – I thought I could help him but I can’t control him 24/7 and even if I could I don’t think he gives a fuck about anything I could say anymore. He’s too far gone…

Miles pulled her in a tight hug she accepted with gratitude and she wrapped her cold arms around his slender trunk. Their only hope was to sort this out together or Alex would drag both of them down with him. In different ways, but they both loved him to bits, even now as he seemed, the way he behaved, to turn into complete stranger, someone the Alex they adored would most probably despise. Reluctantly, the girl pulled away from the embrace.

-          I gotta go… I’ve got work tomorrow morning. Can you take care of him? – Miles nodded, already used to play Alex’s babysitter alternately with her.

-          I’ve got nothing to do anyway since I guess our recording session goes to hell… Gonna call you in the morning, yeah?

-          Thanks mate… You’re the best – She smiled faintly as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and she was gone, the only trace of her presence a hint of her scent lingering in the air.

_Maybe that’s the secret ingredient, all the brokenhearted girls’ perfume._


	2. ...of the end

_So apparently hitting a bottom rock feels like a quite soft landing,_ Alex thought and almost smiled to himself at the irony of how he could easily sneak the line into one of his lyrics and yet it wasn’t just a slightly dramatic figure of speech. He was standing in the middle of a convenience store, impatiently examining long rows of ready meals in the fridge, unable to decide what else to put into the basket next to the clinking bottles to make it look less like a booze hunting trip it in fact was. Not that he cared much about what anyone would think of his grocery shopping list consisting of one item, but he was aware that getting photographed with a bag full of just vodka would do him no good, taking into consideration that pretty much everyone he worked with kept their eyes peeled for his slip and he didn’t feel like handing them the argument to prove they were right about his pathetic condition.

 It’s been a while since he has eaten properly but nothing seemed appetizing and he was pretty sure that he was providing his daily intake of calories with the fluid diet. _Fuck it_ , he couldn’t bring himself to pick anything and as if it wasn’t irritating enough, his own reflection in the fridge glass door almost made his stomach turn. His personal hygiene regimen haven’t been something to look up to recently, hair greasy and sticking to his face in thick strands that haven’t seen comb for weeks, some random shirt he’s picked from the floor of his bedroom stained in multiple places and pierced with a  cigarette burn hole from when he fell asleep smoking. The burning need for shower was noticeable as well. _Wonder how they’d like me now,_ image of crowds in front of the stageflashed through his brain. If he could, he would teleport himself straight to his flat to avoid any human contact on his way back. Still staring like hypnotized at his caricature of reflection, he has taken a few steps towards the tills but his body suddenly came to stop in contact with something warm, a muffled thump followed by a gasp and audibly embarrassed “I’m so sorry!” and next moment a woman was facing him with pink cheeks and another apology on her lips.

 _No fucking way,_  Alex barely managed to stifle his urge to shoot forward and out of her field of vision but it was too late; she recognized him. Out of all the people residing London it had to be her, right?

-          Alex?

They exchanged the usual pleasantries. Laura looked at him in what he was unsuccessfully trying to find any other description for, but “horror”summed it up just perfectly. Still, even with her features distorted and skin colourless, she was beautiful, even more than he remembered from the time they last met three years ago, when he slammed the door shut in her face as she wanted to appeal to his nonexistent reason one final time. He came back to this scene in his rare moments of sobriety but couldn’t say for sure what the turning point that lead to it was. Maybe the chilly autumn evening they spent cozying up under blankets when she whispered shy “I love you” into his ear for the first time and he felt like he won a lottery, like he could rest on laurels, mission accomplished. Or the first time he chose going out alone over cuddling on the sofa together, taking for granted she’ll be there for him to soothe his hangover with a smile on her angelic face, the one that could do almost everything better.

Whichever of his numerous fuck-ups it was, it didn’t matter anymore. Here she was, standing in front of him, her hands clutching to her chest something he identified with his eyes glued to her face as a shopping bag. As he looked down, however, shopping bag morphed into a rather disturbing discovery.

A baby girl was looking curiously at him, her tiny fist wrapped around the pacifier in her mouth. She wriggled in Laura’s embrace causing the woman to tighten her hold, her legs in cute animal print trousers furiously kicking around as she noticed his attention centered on her. Laura caught his perplexed look and broke the silence.

-          It’s my daughter Rosie, she’s seven month old now… - The baby turned quickly at the mention or her name to beam at her mum and then continued to inspect the stranger, dropping her little hand down along with the pacifier and proudly presenting to him the total of two teeth. Laura pressed a small peck at the crown of her head.

-          Hi, Rosie – He tried to look and sound baby-friendly, but he was pretty sure with the look he was sporting he was going to be the little girl’s recurrent bad dream material. Surprisingly, she looked delighted with his words, like he said something particularly entertaining in baby language and let out a small giggle. She must have liked him because she offered him her pacifier with an enthusiastic “Gaaa?”, staring at him expectantly with her big greenish eyes, ones just like her mummy’s.

-          No, thank you, darling – He was never very fond of babies but her generosity made him smile genuinely for the first time in a long time.  – I’m sure it’s first class but I’m a bit too old for that, you know? – His reasoning may have not convinced her as she glanced at him a bit affronted and turned her full attention to a stuffed monkey Laura was holding in her palm.

-          There you are – A voice came from a side and a tall man with the appearance of someone that was born to be a high rank bank manager or successful lawyer sneaked his arm around Laura’s waist. He certainly looked confused and on a verge of taking a step back when he realized that his wife was conversing with a guy that looked and most certainly smelled like a tramp.

\-          Darling, this is Alex… an old friend. – It stung, but what did he expect? The last thing she did for him after he broke up with her was to contact his parents, the only people who had any influence on him at all, and send them siren wailing to London where they forced him to get into rehab in an emergency mode. He still found time for a goodbye call though and yelled at her until she hung up. Taking this under consideration, it was quite nice of her not to completely ignore him now, let alone call him friend when in fact he has been nothing more than a major dickhead.

-          Eric, nice to meet you. – The man’s face said the exact opposite. He also didn’t bother to offer him a hand, opting for taking a look on his expensive watch instead. – We have to go, love, if you don’t want to be late…

-          Oh, you’re right… See you around, Al – Their eyes met for a moment and he was struck by the fact how her look wasn’t one of pity or gross, the kind everyone seemed to give him these days. It was close to warm, slightly resembling what she used to look to him like when they still had a thing going.

As he finally made it to his flat and on his settee with a drink in his hand, scanning his miserable surroundings with a painful clarity of thought at once, he still couldn’t stop dwelling on the look and the taste of domestic bliss he witnessed at the store.

_This could all be yours._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your feedback of all sorts will make me a very happy puppy!


End file.
